Means for treating thin strip metal



Nov. 8, 1938. c. B. HIGGINS MEANS FOR TREATING THIN STRIP METAL Filed Jan. 28, 1937 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jnventor .lll llllllll 1 l W H 5 Sheetsheet 2 Nov. 8, 1938 c. B. HIGGINS MEANS FOR TREATING THIN STRIP METAL Filed Jan. 28, 1937 3 3nventor Nov. 8, 1938. c; B. HIGGINS MEANS FOR TREATING THIN STRIP METAL 5 sheets-she 6 Filed Jan. 28, 1957 Patented Nov. 8, 1938 MEANS FOR; TREATING THIN STRIP METAL Clifford B. Higgins, Detroit, Mich, assignor t H & H Tube & Mfg. 00., Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application January as, 1937, Serial N... 122,758

GCIaims.

7 This invention relates to means for treating thin metal which comes from the rolling mills in strip orribbon form spirally wound into rolls; and an object of the present invention is to provide means especially adapted for subjecting such a strip to an acid bath, during the continuous treatment of the strip by successively annealing, quenching washing, drying and winding into roll form, with a continuous movement of the strip. It is also an object to increase the efliciency of an acid bath .instrumentality, by providing means operative in conjunction with such instrumentality for thoroughly agitating the acid and applying it to both surfaoes of the strip in a 1'5 manner to make it most effective in cleaning the metal, said instrumentality being adapted to be so arranged relative to the other instrumentalities in the line of treatment that the metal strip will be led therethrough, and the acid applied 20 in the most efiective manner during the continuous movement of the strip in annealing, quenching, applying the acid and other baths and winding up the strip into roll form, all in a continuous operation.

25 It is a further object to provide certain other all as hereinafter more fully set forth, reference being had to the accompanying drawings where- 30 n Figs. 1 and 2 together form a diagrammatic outline illustrative of a continuous method. of treating, particularly adapted to include means embodying the present invention; 7 35 Fig. 3 isa side elevation of an instrumentality illustrative of an embodiment of the present inyention for applying an acid bath to the 'metal ribbons or strips; Fig. 4 is a plan view of Fig. 3: 40 Fig. 5 is a transverse section substantially upon the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged sectional detail substantially upon the line B 6 of Fig. 4; l

Fig. '7 is a section substantially upon the line 45 1-1 of Fig. 6; and

Fig. 8 is a section on line 8-8 of Fig. 4. -As illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, several instrumentalities are shown insequence to illustrate means which may be employed to successively 50 perform the several steps 'in the treatment of metal ribbons or strips, the acid applying means embodying the present invention being especially adapted to be included as one of said steps, said series as shown including; first, a cradle or 55 holder indicated as a whole by the numeral l for holding rolls 2 each formed of a thin metal T strip or ribbon coiled into roll form; second, a puller indicated as a whole by the numeral 3 for pulling from the rolls 2, the metal strips 4 comprising said rolls; third, an annealing fur- 5 nace 5 through which said strips 4 are led from end to end thereof; fourth, a quencher 6 for cooling the strips as they leave the furnace; fifth, a second puller 1 similar to the first puller 3; sixth, an acid bath illustrative of an em- 10 bodiment of the present invention and indicated as a whole by the numeral 8; seventh, a cold water washer-9; eighth, a hot water washer l0; ninth, a drier H; tenth, a third puller l2 similar to the other pullers; and eleventh, winders I3, one for each of the several strips being treated and each of which strips 4 is being unwound from a separate roll 2. These several devices are therefore arranged in sequence and the desired number of separate strips arranged in parallelism, are simultaneously treated by passing them through the several devices consecutively and finally winding each upon a winding roll. A Motive power is provided for driving the strip, or as in the present arrangement shown, the

several parallel strips, by an electric motor 2| from which motion is transmitted for positively driving the several feed rolls of the puller 3 and from these rolls each strip leads to an opening in the end of the annealing furnace 5 and is passed longitudinally of the furnace and out through the opposite .end thereof over a roll 24, the strip or strips passing throughthe furnace V in the form of a loop or sag in the run of the v strip. y a

From the roll 24 at the forward end of the furnace, the strip or strips are led downwardly into the quenching tank 6 and then proceed over an idler 26 above the open top of the tank 40 and thence to the'second puller I which comprises a plurality of driven rolls similar in arrangement to that of the puller 3 including driving rolls 28 and 29 and an idler roll 30.

The shaft of one of the driving rolls of the first puller device 3 1s provided with a sprocket upon one end to be engaged by a long chain 3| which chain extends longitudinally past the furnace 5 and quencher 6 and engages a sprocket upon the shaft of the roll 29. The several rolls of the puller I are therefore positively driven at the same speed as the rolls'of the puller 3 and therefore the strip or strips are propelled or moved forwardly at an even speed.

From the roll 30 of the puller device I, the 56 strips 4 are led horizontally across a shallow tray 35a mounted upon tubular supports 35b extending across the upper side of an open tank 35 for holding a quantity of acid, and to insure the proper contact of this acid with both sides of .the strip or strips passing through the tray 35a and close to the upper surface of the acid in said tray, said tank is provided with a series of bucket wheels 36 secured to stub shafts 3l mounted in bearings upon the upper edge of one side wall of the tank and between said wall and the adjacent side of said tray 35a, and each wheel 36 is provided with a series of peripheral buckets 38 secured to an end disk or wall 39 of the wheel, with the peripheral wall of each bucket forming a closed side for the bucket and the inwardly extending radial walls of each bucket forming opposed sides with the inner side of each bucket formed with a discharge opening 40 for discharging the acid picked up from the tank by each bucket during' rotation of the wheel. Mounted upon the tray 35a transversely thereof and of said strips 4 opposite each of the bucket wheels 36, is a tubular trough 4| which has an open cup end 42 projecting into the wheel between the inner sides of the several buckets of that wheel so that as the wheel is rotated about this cup 42, acid will be picked up from said tank 35 by each of the buckets and as they pass over each cup 42, they will discharge their contents into said cups and the acid will fiow from each cup into the end of its tubular trough 4| and out through the bottom slot 4|a of said trough directly upon the upper surface of the several strips 4 and into the tray 35a.

The several bucket wheels 36 are continuously rotated by means of a sprocket chain 43 engaging a sprocket on the shaft of the roll 30 and passing over a sprocket on the end of one of the stub shafts 31 of one of the bucket wheels, and a second sprocket chain 44 transmits motion from the stub shaft of the first wheel to the shafts 3'! of the other bucket wheels so that rotation of the several bucket wheels is continuous and serves to thoroughly agitate the acid within the tank. At the same time these bucket wheels serve to elevate the acid and discharge it into the troughs 4| through the cups 42, imparting momentum to the flow in each trough so that this acid will be discharged through the slot 4|a in the bottom of each trough with sufficient momentum to flow across the upper surface ofthe strips and tend to loosen the scale on this surface and wash it away. The lower surfaces of these strips are also directly contacted by the acid which fills the tray and overflows into'the tank beneath, maintaining the level of acid in the tray at a height to contact said strip, and which acid is thoroughly and continuously agitated by the fiow from the troughs, tending to wash away the scale from the lower surface of the strips. With this arrangement the acid bath is thoroughly agitated and stirred and every part of each of the strips is subjected to its action and all scale is com-' pletely removed due to such contact and also to the direction and force with which the acid is presented to the upper surface of the strips.

This acid applying instrumentalityuindicated as a whole by the numeral 8, is particularly adapted by reason of its construction to be connected in the series of treating instrumentalities and form a part of the continuous treating system. After being subjected to the acid bath, the several strips being treated are then passed horizontally over washers for washing away the acid and thoroughly cleaning the strips, the first being a cold water washer 8.

After being thoroughly washed by cold water in the washer 9, the strips are carried by idler rolls Ilia into the open upper end of the' hot water tank I0 and passing through the hot water are further cleaned of any acid or scale carried thereby.

From the hot water washer or tank ill, the several strips pass longitudinally through the drier II which is equipped with gas burners, not shown, or other suitable heating means for heating and drying the several strips as they are caused to travel through the drier by means of the third pulling device I! comprising a plurality of driven rolls having an arrangement substantially-the same as that of the puller I. The lower roll 28 of this puller is positively driven by the chain 3| which is continued past the acid tank 35, and the two water tanks and drier, engaging a sprocket on the end of the shaft of the roll 29. The three pullers 3, I and I! are thus connected together to operate at .the same speed andthus drive the strips at three separate points of their length at the same speed so that the several strips or ribbons which are being treated will ,be moved forwardly at an even speed throughout the length of the several cooperating instrumentalities for treating the metal.

After the several strips have been treated,

cleaned and dried, it is most desirable that they Each of these roll shafts is rotated at the proper speed by means of a sprocket chain 58 running over a sprocket on the end of the shaft of the roll 30, and as the long sprocket chain 3| serves to drive the roll 29 to move the strips at the proper speed, and as the roll. 30 is connected to turn with the roll 29, the rolls 5| will all be rotated at a speed corresponding to the movement of the several strips and these strips willbe properly wound upon said rolls.

The acid bath instrumentality 8 embodying the present invention is therefore particularly adapted to be included in the, line of instrumentalities, and with this arrangement, a plurality of strips or ribbons of thin sheet metal may be simultaneously annealed and treated to produce a finished product, and each strip inay be added to indefinitely extend its length and provide a continuous process.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is: J

1. Means for subjecting a longstrip of thin metal to an acid bath during the process of treating and annealing said strip while travelling in a long horizontal run, said acid applying means including an acid tank across which said run extends and acid agitating and elevating means in said tank for stirring said acid and raising it above the horizontal plane of said run and discharging it downwardly with a continuous fiow xinto impingement with said strip.

2. Means as characterized in claim 1, and further characterized in that said agitating and elevating means includes a rotary member havin g peripheral buckets, and means above the -horizontal plane of said run. of said strip for receiving acid from said buckets and discharg- I eluding a tray above said tank and across which tray said run extends and into which tray acid is elevated from said tank, said elevating means including a member arranged to pick up. acid from said tank and discharge the same downwardly into impingement with the upper surface 01. said strip. 4. Means as characterized in claim 1, and including a tray above said tank and across which tray said run extends, and a trough extending across said tray above said run and having a discharge opening in its lower side, said elevating means comprising a rotary member having peripheral buckets arranged to dip into the acid in said tank and discharge the same into said trough.

5. Means as characterized in claim 1, and including a shallow tray above said tank and across which tray said run extends, said elevating means comprising a rotary bucket wheel at one side of said tray to dip into the acid in said tank' and. elevate the same to a level above said tray, a trough extending across said tray above said run and opposite said wheel and having an end cup into which said wheel discharges, said trough having a longitudinal discharge slot in its lower side, and means for rotating said bucket wheel.

6. Means for subjecting a long strip of thin metal to an acid bath during the process of treating said strip while travelling in a horizontal run, said acid applying means including an acid tank across which said run of said strip extends, an acid agitating and elevating means in said tank comprising a plurality of rotative members,

ets withthe inner end of each bucket open and positioned outwardly from the axis of said member to provide a space between the inner ends of said buckets, a horizontally disposed trough extending from each rotative member and provided with an upwardly open cup at the end of said trough within the axial space of said rotaa tray supported by said tank above the level of acid in said tank, said troughs extendingacross and above the level of acid in said tray, and means :for rotating said members carrying said buckets.

CLIFFORD B. HIGGINS.

- each having radially extending peripheral buck- 

